‘Caps Overwhelm Revs in Casa Grande Finale

Vancouver forward Darren Mattocks pulled out the wand to perform a quick hat trick and ex-Revolution goalkeeper Brad Knighton shut the door in the second half to hand New England a 4-1 preseason loss on Tuesday.

Mattocks wasted no time collecting his trio of goals, which came in the 2nd, 5th and 15th minutes. Chris Tierney briefly brought the Revolution back with an 11th minute penalty. Kenny Miller’s 65th minute penalty capped the scoring.

Knighton, who came on in relief of starter Joe Cannon for the second half, kept his former club at bay for the final 45 minutes to help the Whitecaps coast to an easy three points.

New addition Matt Horth, who attempted to connect on a cross from Tierney in the 11th minute, earned the penalty that set up the Revolution’s only goal.

Second round pick Luis Soffner made his preseason debut between the sticks when he came on for Bobby Shuttleworth in the 59th minute.

New England used 25 players, with many players only on the field for one half of action. Vancouver adopted the same approach, using 24 players, albeit with greater success.

Vancouver’s Greg Klazura earned the lone caution of the match in the 85th minute.

With the curtains drawn on the Casa Grande portion of their preseason schedule, the Revolution will return to the Dana Farber Fieldhouse on Friday to resume training. They’ll fly back to Arizona on Feb. 9 in preparation for the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup preseason tournament.

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4 Comments

Brian

January 30, 2013 at 9:26 pm

Is toja injured or not yet with the team? I don’t think I’ve seen where has gotten any minutes in the two games. Or at least I haven’t seen his name in the recaps. Is there any indication from the early matches with respect to style of play for the season? Hopefully it mimics the start of last season rathern than the end…

As far as style of play, I think Heaps just wants to get his guys on the field, which is why we’ve seen so many subs so far. I could be wrong, but I don’t think anyone has played a full 90 yet. So, take the these first 2 games with a grain of salt. I think we’ll see a lot more re: style of play during the Desert Diamond Cup in a couple of weeks.

About Brian O'Connell

Brian O'Connell (@BrianOConnell21) serves as editor and staff writer at New England Soccer Today. He's also the Revolution beat writer for ESPNFC, and is Officer at Large for the North American Soccer Reporters. He's contributed to The Associated Press, The Canadian Press, and has been featured on MLSSoccer.com & RevsNet.com. E-mail: BOConnell21@aol.com